By Zachary Price

AMERICUS — Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) recently hosted the Regional National History Day competition. This is a competition sponsored by the Georgia Humanities Council, and serves as a training opportunity for the state level competition that is held in Macon. It was held from 9:30 a.m.-noon March 3 on the GSW campus.
There were over 30 students from St. Teresa’s Catholic School participating in the competition. The theme this year was “Taking a Stand,” and students participated in the following seven categories: Group Performance, Group Website, Individual Exhibit, Individual Website, Individual Documentary, Group Documentary, and Group Exhibit. The students were judged by members of the GSW history department faculty, and by members of the Public History Committee.
However, the judges weren’t just there to decide who the winner was. The main task for the judges was to provide feedback for the students, so that they could improve their projects. Laura McCarty, the Georgia Humanities Council coordinator for the event, said, “This is an opportunity for the students to improve before state.”
The students were expected to articulate a thesis and relate it to this year’s theme, and then they were judged on three separate criteria: historical quality, relation to theme, and clarity. Historical quality was the most important criteria and it referred to the research, analysis, and interpretation of the topic. Relation to theme judged how well the projects related to the theme, and how well they demonstrated the significance of the theme in history. Clarity judged the projects’ appearance and overall presentation.
St. Teresa’s has been participating in National History Day for 10 years, and these students had been preparing since the summer break in 2016. The students were nervous being judged, but they did seem excited for the opportunity. When they weren’t being judged, they gathered around to show support for their peers, and clapped and cheered when the presentations were over.
The head teacher for the students, Tracy Woodcock, said, “The students enjoy it, and they were excited to compete next year in the senior level.”
The winners of the competition were as follows: Grace Mallow, Emily Grundfast, Angie Hardison, Kaylee Yip, Danna Anaya for their performance of Elie Weasel: Taking a Stand Against Oppression in the category of Group Performance; Savannah Paros, Molly Simpson, Leland Glover for their website Jane Addams and the Hull House in the category of Group Website; Alana Centeno for Attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 in the category of Individual Exhibit; Tyler Hatcher for Jesse Owens: Defiance in Leaps and Bounds in the category of Individual Website; Angelica Malinao for the Belles of Bataan: Fighting the Standard as Well as the Enemy In the category of Individual Documentary; Edgar Rangel, Giacomo Palazzolo, Alex Newton, Caden Woodcock, and Joshua Lumogdang for Muhammad Ali: A Fighter Refusing to Fight in the category of Group Documentary; Nicholas Patton, Corey Keaton, Morgan Wright, and Grant Johnson for An Act of Courage: Storming the Beaches of Normandy in a Stand against the Germans in the category of Group Exhibit.